downtown

1913downtown1

WHEN SANTA ROSA ROLLED UP THE SIDEWALKS

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

Hey, remember when we looked forward all week to having fun in downtown Santa Rosa on Saturday night? Me neither.

There’s plenty of elbow room for anyone on downtown sidewalks after dark and Saturday nights are no different. Sure, if you like pub grub ‘n’ suds while watching sports there are at least a half dozen joints where you can park your carcass for a few hours. There are also very good restaurants, a first-run cineplex and live entertainment, but there’s a catch – those places are at the outer reaches of the downtown core or in Railroad Square. Plan on a five block hike between destinations, walking past all those downtown banks which after hours are just featureless walls with an attached ATM. And if you plan trekking the circuitous route to and from Railroad Square after the Fortress Shopping Mall is closed, thou hast more stamina and courage than I. What once was boasted to be “the city designed for living” is now “the city designed for daytime banking” and not much else.

It wasn’t always thus. A little over a hundred years ago, downtown was packed on Saturday nights. Stores were open late; a band toodled popular tunes from the old courthouse balcony. As the Press Democrat described the scene in 1905, it was a weekly celebration of community which seems impossible to imagine happening today:

Saturday evenings in Santa Rosa are bright and lively throughout the summer and the early autumn months. Five evenings each week the stores and markets close at 6 o’clock; but on Saturdays, the doors are open until midnight or thereabouts, and the town does its belated shopping…working clothes are laid aside, and “Sunday best” is donned without waiting for Sunday to come. After the evening meal, it is the custom for all the family to go “down town” together. No matter if there is no need of shopping (although generally there is), the head of the household, “and the missus and the kids,” all want to go and listen to the band.

Alas, 1905 was probably the last year of the Saturday night shopping musicales; by 1913 the merchants wanted to close up by 6 o’clock because there wasn’t enough business to pay for the lights and the workers. That came as no surprise; a few months earlier, most downtown stores closed early on a Saturday night so store clerks could attend a dog show.

What happened? The 1906 earthquake, for starters, which turned all of downtown into a construction zone for more than a year. Saturday was traditionally the day farmers came in to town for shopping, and post-earthquake downtown was less inviting to horse-drawn wagons and buggies, with fewer hitching posts (in 1912 the city finally gave in and set up the vacant lot at Third and B streets with posts as a kind of horse parking lot). When parcel post was launched in 1913 the need for farmers to venture downtown and shop in person was nearly eliminated, as same or next day mailing of packages from local stores was nearly free.

Another change after the earthquake was that downtown began developing a theatrical district, with a new movie or vaudeville house opening nearly every year in the 1910s. Entertainment was a reason to be downtown apart from shopping and the two might not mix. It’s one thing to sit on the courthouse lawn with your groceries while listening to the band play a dance tune in 1905, and another to carry a bag of fresh onions into a theater in 1912 showing a Bronco Billy double feature.

There was no ordinance passed demanding retail stores lock their doors every night at six, nor one requiring them to stay open. And there’s no direct link between today’s situation  and their 1913 decision to not stay open on Saturday night (although all those the darkened store windows would look mighty familiar to us).

Yet the early closing and not resuming the Saturday night concerts were capitulations that the downtown was not the heart of the community binding us together, but instead merely an assortment of independent businesses. That attitude led to the downtown withering away after WWII, starting with Hugh Codding poaching the retail district for Montgomery Village in 1952 and Coddingtown ten years later. After that came terrible planning decisions favoring bankers and bureaucrats. The entire south side of downtown was wasted on low-use federal, state and city administration buildings. City Hall was also unforgivably built on the site of a major Pomo village and destroyed access to Santa Rosa Creek, which was always the town’s crown jewel.

Reunification of Courthouse Square may be an appealing notion (it certainly has my approval) but it’s going to do nothing to mend a downtown which has been systematically dismantled for over a half century. The day when the old streets of Hinton and Exchange are reopened might be reason to celebrate, but nothing will really change. The Plaza will still remain an obstacle splitting downtown from Railroad Square as well as the transit hub from the SMART train station. There still will be no place downtown where anyone can buy an apple or an aspirin because there are no grocery or drug stores. The place will still be a ghost town after six.

Which brings us to “Smile.”

A few months ago Gaye Lebaron wrote a column on the 1975 movie of that name which was filmed here. A brilliant satire about America’s tacky culture (the plot centers on teenage girls competing in the “Young American Miss” beauty pageant) the film reserves its real jabs for the Jaycees and other Chamber of Commerce types who promoted the contest. Santa Rosa itself had a starring role although it was somewhat misrepresented – the title credits left the impression the town was mainly a series of trailer parks – and locals were apparently enthusiastic during the filming, with many of them having bit parts. When the movie debuted however, many angrily felt it made mockery of them. The director defended himself, saying “I was trying to show the people as they really are,” and called Santa Rosa “the all-time happy place…[an] American kind of town that could be anywhere in the country.” Small consolation after a major review said the town “appears to be blighted by a kind of inbred cultural smog.”

But the movie “Smile” is a love letter to Santa Rosa compared to the musical “Smile.” In 1983 composer Marvin Hamlisch announced the work-in-progress, telling the New York Times, “We want people to feel they’re right there at Santa Rosa, Calif., watching 16 teen-age girls compete for the title Young American Miss.”

A revised version of the musical made it to Broadway in 1986 (it ran only for six weeks) but the original had a different lyricist: Carolyn Leigh – best known for “Peter Pan” – who wrote the song, “Nightlife in Santa Rosa” to set the scene. It’s pretty obvious all she knew about Santa Rosa was what she gleaned from the movie, but it’s still a good sendup of the town that really did roll up its sidewalks on Saturday night, and had for a long time.

Excerpts transcribed from the CD “Witch Craft: The Songs of Carolyn Leigh” by Sara Zahn:

Nightlife, Santa Rosa
Talk about your all-time thrill
Nightlife, Santa Rosa
Never gonna get my fill
I got myself a 90-dollar organdy dress
but nothing but the iron steams
Nightlife, Santa Rosa
Is goin’ to bed
‘Cause everything’s dead but your dreams

Nightlife in nowhere city
Talk about your madcap town
No sooner than the pretty
Santa Rosa sun goes down
There’s nothing but the flushing of the chemical johns
From seven thousand mobile homes
Nightlife, Santa Rosa
You sit in the tub
And applaud as the bubble bath foams

Oh, God, what are we doing here
Oh, God, sittin’ and stewin’ here…

One bar, a bar-b-que stand
A counter man who don’t wear shoes
They closed the all night newstand
Maybe because they don’t got news
They lit a roman candle on the Fourth of July
I hear it made the L.A. Times
Midnight, Santa Rosa
I’ll trade you two of this town
For South Potawatomi and a lobotomy…

What’s hot in Santa Rosa
Nothin’ in the goddam place
Nothing but a hotshot in Santa Rosa
Bettin’ on a bedbug race
[spoken: Hello, operator? Get me Dave Shapiro at the William Morris Agency-what time did you say it was?]
Nightlife in Santa Rosa
Is going to bed
Because everything’s dead
Except me and a head full of dreams

It’s the stars growin’ pale
And your hopes gettin’ stale
It’s like being in jail with your dreams

Looking northeast at the corner of Fourth and Hinton, ca. 1913, verified by James Whittingham’s realty office at 626 Fourth street only appearing in that year’s city directory. Photo courtesy Larry Lapeere Collection
CLOSE STORES SATURDAY EVE.
Merchants May Lock Doors at 6 O’Clock

A petition is being circulated among the merchants of this city calling for the closing of stores on Saturday evenings at 6 o’clock. It is contended by the merchants that they do not transact sufficient business after 6 o’clock on Saturday evenings to pay for the illumination of their stores and the incidental expenses of operation.

When this is taken into consideration, the merchants and their clerks would prefer to remain at home with their families instead of standing about their respective places of business.

On Thursday and Friday the petition was signed by a number of the prominent merchants, and it is believed that it will be so generally signed that in the near future all the stores may be closed on Saturday evening.

– Santa Rosa Republican May 16, 1913

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LET’S ALL WORK FOR LUTHER BURBANK

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

Luther Burbank wants you to work for him. Can’t type? Then he’ll teach you how, free. And if you don’t want a desk job (or can’t spel gud) they’re hiring at the post office, which is ramping up to be one of the largest mail depots on the West Coast.


The Luther Burbank Press in the old Odd Fellows’ building, corner of Third street and Exchange avenue. The south side of the Empire Building can be seen at the far right)

Santa Rosa was transformed in 1912 as hundreds of young people, mostly women, began working in the big building on Third street next to the courthouse. Where elsewhere downtown local women worked in laundries, as sales clerks and telephone operators, all types of business office work was still almost exclusively a man’s domain, so it was quite unusual for a company to specifically advertise salaried, clerical jobs were available to “girls.” For the company to also run a free typing school was remarkable. For all this to happen in little Santa Rosa, with a township population of about 14,000, was nothing short of revolutionary. The Press Democrat gushed it “opens up a large and entirely new field for the young men and women of Santa Rosa, enabling them to make metropolitan wages for metropolitan work right here at home.”

The employer was the Luther Burbank Press, a new enterprise setup by the non-profit Luther Burbank Society, with the mission of publishing a set of books about Burbank’s plant breeding. It had no connection with the Luther Burbank Company, which was also created a few months earlier to sell Burbank seeds and plants commercially.

The Burbank books wouldn’t be finished for a couple of years, but the women were needed to prepare a mass mailing of epic proportions, sending out 170,000 letters nationwide. Subsequent mailings would be larger still. “No other concern on the Pacific Coast, and few in America, have mailed so much first class matter as the Luther Burbank Press is mailing,” the PD remarked, “[more than] Sears, Roebuck & Co., Montgomery Ward & Co., and other well known mail order houses.”

After the operation was underway, the Press Democrat sent a reporter to describe the doings:

In the main hall, designated as the mailing room and general office, some seventy young ladies, most of them products of the school recently conducted by the Burbank Press for instruction in typewriting and later employment of girls in their office here, were busily engaged. A score or more of typewriting machines were merrily clicking away. At other desks young ladies were comparing lists and sorting the name cards, thousands upon thousands of them, each card being alphabetically arranged in cabinets, each desk and cabinet representing one of the States.

Today it might seem odd the PD reporter also noted, “Still another room in this large establishment is the rest room for the young ladies” but keep in mind the fashions and customs of 1912; women still wore faint-inducing bustles, and having a couch available for a short lie-down was no frivolous luxury. And as the Burbank Press employment ads for “girls” seemed to favor teenagers living at home, it probably assured upright parents their delicate little Gladys wouldn’t be competing with strange men for the water closet.

With an avalanche of mail going out and Burbank Press buying $7,000 worth of stamps at one time – an astonishing amount of postage, considering it cost only 4¢ to send a letter – Santa Rosa’s post office was upgraded to “first class” status. What exactly that meant in 1912 is unclear except for them ordering another “electric stamp canceller,” but today it would mean an boost in pay grades as well as an expanded staff – the mailroom, shown below in a photograph from an October 6, 1912 Press Democrat article – looks downright crowded. Having first-class post office status lent no weight to the size or importance of the town, despite the Press Democrat declaring this “a matter of much significance;” we were still small potatoes compared to places such as Westerville, Ohio (pop. 2,000) which sent over forty tons of mail a month, thanks to it being headquarters of the Anti-Saloon League of America.

BURBANK SOCIETY INCORPORATION

The Luther Burbank Society articles of incorporation were filed with County Clerk William W. Felt, Jr., on Saturday. The corporation is not formed for profit and there is no capital stock of the concern.

The objects are set forth in the articles “to assist in perpetuating the record of forty years’ experience of Luther Burbank and the furthering of the widespread distribution of Burbank’s writings.”

Luther Burbank’s old homestead is the principal place of business. It has John P. Overton, James R. Edwards and Robert John for directors.

– Santa Rosa Republican, May 18, 1912
MANY NOTED PEOPLE JOIN LUTHER BURBANK SOCIETY

After several ineffectual attempts to commercialize the lifework of Luther Burbank, the world-famous horticulturalist, and corner the profits for a privileged class, a Luther Burbank Society has been organized, charted by the State of California, and with a definite purpose of seeing that the work of the great scientist be given to posterity without favor or entail.

The society has no capital stock, no power to incur debts or to earn profits. Its purpose is solely to assist Luther Burbank in the widespread dissemination of his teachings, so that the greatest number may profit in the greatest degree. It has an extensive membership with names of nation-wide fame on the roll. Burbank is the honorary president, and the name of Mrs. Phoebe Hearst immediately follows the list, so far as it is prepared, concluding with Nicholas M. Butler of Columbia University. The membership is limited to 500, and by means of the moderate membership fee the society will make possible the mechanical production of books of a quality which will do honor to the author and the matter which they contain. The aim is to place the wizard’s knowledge in convenient book form at nominal cost before every farmer, gardener or horticulturist in the world. The home of the organization is located at Burbank’s grounds at Santa Rosa, and its activities will have his personal guidance and cooperation. A partial list of the membership follows.

[..]

– Press Democrat, December 3, 1912
WORK BEING DONE HERE BY LUTHER BURBANK PRESS

Few people realize the immensity of the work being done by the Luther Burbank Press of this city at the present time. Robert John and John Whitson, managers of the editorial and business departments respectively, are making preparations now for printing the first volume of “Burbank and His Work.” So large has grown the business of this company that it was necessary for them to secure the old Odd Fellows’ building on Third street and turn it into a school and business department.

In conservation on Friday Mr. Johns stated that one of the most liberal offers ever given to young ladies to secure permanent work and a schooling in typewriting is being allowed by the Burbank Press to secure aid in promoting the work they have in hand. A school with expert teachers has been established in the Odd Fellows building, where the young ladies are given a course in typewriting and when competent are given permanent positions.

The object of this school is to enable the publishers to combine the managing departments in Santa Rosa. If sufficient aid can be secured a large building will be erected here and the school and business department conducted there.

The immensity of the book that is to be published is shown when it is known that it will take between two and three hundred tons of paper to print the works. There are to be 12 volumes with about 400 pages in each volume, and about 20,000 copies of each volume. The first books are expected to reach the local department within the next ninety days.

The wonderful discovery made recently by members of this company in photographing the true colors of plants, has enabled them to print one of the most wonderful volumes ever seen. By the new process of photographing a great deal of expense is saved and a much better color developed than by the former method of painting.

Employment can be secured by 300 girls and young men from the Burbank Press. At the present time they are preparing copy for the publishers and when the books begin to arrive the mailing and correspondence will furnish considerable work.

The school in Odd Fellows’ building started Friday morning with a number of pupils present.

In reply to a speech made recently before the Ad Men’s Convention in San Francisco by Mr. Johns, one of the men stated that there were not enough presses in San Francisco to print the books being published by the Burbank Press in the short space of time necessary. Consequently the management has had to send their printing to the east, and there divide it among the largest companies.

– Santa Rosa Republican, August 2, 1912
SANTA ROSA MESSAGE READ IN 6,200 CITIES
GREAT ACTIVITY OF  BURBANK PRESS

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT has published the story of the mailing from the Santa Rosa postoffice last week by the Burbank Press of 170,000 letters, each bearing four cents postage, and comment has already been made on the amount of labor entailed, both in the mailing department of the concern sending out the vast number of letters and on the clerks of the postoffice.

There are some other important incidents in connection with the enormous amount of mail matter being sent out from a city the size of Santa Rosa within a week. For instance, there was the purchase of $7,000 worth of postage stamps at one time, a notable increase in business, jumping the Santa Rosa postoffice from a second class to a first class postoffice. This in itself is a matter of much significance.

Then it must be taken into consideration that each of the 170,000 letters bore the Santa Rosa postmark and that the letter inside has a Santa Rosa date line and also signalized the city as being the home of Luther Burbank, the distinguished scientist whose fruit and flower wonders have attracted the attention of the civilized world. A big stroke of publicity for Santa Rosa when it is again considered that the letters will be read in 6,200 cities and towns of importance in different parts of the United States. Just think of that! A boost for Santa Rosa in 6,2000 places at the same time!

There is still greater promotion to come. In November the Burbank Press will mail 450,000 more letters to all parts of the United States, and thousands upon thousands more letters will follow in the early months of the next year. The biggest mailing house on the Pacific Coast, located in Oregon, only sends out 300,000 letters per year and held the record until the Burbank Press started something that will easily wrest the honors away and land here in the City of Roses.

Naturally the inquiry has been made, “Why are all these thousands of letters being sent out?” As is well known, the Burbank Press, a concern in which a number of the great men of the country are interested, will shortly issue the first set consisting of twelve volumes of the only complete work ever published of Luther Burbank and his achievements. In fact, nothing like it has ever been dreamed of. The publication will attract the admiration of the whole world. The advance sheets indicate this. And so these letters are being sent out to the leading men and women of this land apprising them of the wondrous nature of this great work on Burbank and his creations. In passing it might be mentioned that the volumes are profusely illustrated with colored pictures of the Burbank productions, photographed in garden and orchard by the wonderful process discovered by the wonderful process discovered by Robert John, which reproduces on the negative the exact color tints of the flower or fruit photographed. Some time since The Press Democrat mentioned the wonderful addition to photographic art made by Mr. John.

At the invitation of Messrs. John and Whitson, a Press Democrat representative visited the company’s offices in the old Odd Fellows’ building at Third street and Exchange avenue on Friday afternoon just to gain an insight into the immensity of the business the Burbank Press is engaged in while exploiting the great Burbank book.

In the main hall, designated as the mailing room and general office, some seventy young ladies, most of them products of the school recently conducted by the Burbank Press for instruction in typewriting and later employment of girls in their office here, were busily engaged. A score or more of typewriting machines were merrily clicking away. At other desks young ladies were comparing lists and sorting the name cards, thousands upon thousands of them, each card being alphabetically arranged in cabinets, each desk and cabinet representing one of the States.

It was truly a busy scene in the big building the Burbank Press leased some time ago as its general office here. From the main room just mentioned the newspaperman was shown into another room containing folios of names and addresses–over a million and a half of names. As replies are received to communications they are noted on these lists together with any corrections that may be necessary. The system adopted is one of the most complete and at the same time most modern, another indication of the immensity of the publicity work the Burbank Press will do.

Off the main office room–the former lodge room of the Odd Fellows–is the other large room which was used as a school room when the girls were being given their instruction in typing. At present desks, seats and typewriting machines occupy the school room, but it is the intention of the management to start up the school again when more copyists are needed. Still another room in this large establishment is the rest room for the young ladies.

Everything is kept in apple-pie order in the offices and mailing room. More equipment has been ordered and will be installed in the main room. One of the pictures that are herewith produced, was taken in the mailing room at the time when the 170,000 letters were being prepared for the trip to the postoffice. The other shows the mail clerks at work handling the immense quantity of letters in the Santa Rosa postoffice.

But in addition to the thousands of letters in the special lot, hundreds of others touching various phases of the work are being forwarded. Then, a sheet of editorial and new suggestions has been prepared and this is being sent out to the newspapers of the land so that still wider publicity will be given Santa Rosa, the Burbank Press and, of course, the books. The gentlemen in charge of the Burbank Press certainly know how to provide publicity that should crown their efforts with success. They are sparing no pains or expense in the system they have adopted to bring to the attention of the world something of which they and the publishers they represent can be justly proud. They have also developed the right spirit of patriotism to city and home talent in that they are employing in the offices mailing and other departments as far as possible. They are also buying their postage stamps at the Santa Rosa postoffice and mean to continue to do so. Already the office has had to send a requisition on ahead for another electric stamp canceller.

In addition to the big offices of the Burbank Press occupying the old Odd Fellows’ hall, Messrs. John and Whitson have their private offices in the old Luther Burbank residence across from the new home the scientist built on Santa Rosa avenue. An inspection was permitted Friday afternoon of the camera and lens that takes the colors true to life already referred to. A delightful half hour was spent in looking through some of the piles of negatives already secured. A large cabinet with its many drawers is practically filled with the negatives. Some three thousand pictures have been taken. The work is perfect. The prints of the negatives are a revelation. The first volume of the Burbank books, which will be ready to issue from the eastern publishing house about the first week in November, contains 113 of these colored pictures. The popularity of the book is assured and it will be a faithful record of the life work of the greatest man of his time in the realm of horticulture, and in consequence a most valuable addition to the libraries of the world.

– Press Democrat, October 6, 1912

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RIOT AT THE DIME STORE

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

“Black Friday” sales after Thanksgiving are not just about the bargains; we’ve come to expect videos of crowds waiting for hours outside the store, then rushing through the doors in a frenzy. This provides an opportunity for the rest of us to cluck our tongues and moralize. “Oh, look at those uncivilized people pushing and shoving,” we sigh, “people didn’t use to act like that!” Don’t bet on it – great-grandma was willing to trample you to get her hands on a discount teapot.

(RIGHT: F. W. Woolworth ad in the Press Democrat, 1912. CLICK or TAP to enlarge)

One of the big events in 1912 Santa Rosa was the opening of the Woolworth 5-10-15¢ store. There were already several homegrown department stores downtown, as well as places where you could buy small hardware items, candy, and whatnot. That Woolworth’s wasn’t locally owned was part of its appeal; it was novel in being the first nationwide chain to set up shop in town. And also nice: Really, really cheap stuff.

The store offered a preview (with live orchestra!) the day before opening, along with a big advertisement announcing the hourly specials. The next morning, a crowd started gathering 90 minutes before the store opened. “When the doors were finally unlocked and the jam was so great that one woman narrowly escaped having her arm broken when she fell before the on rush,” reported the Press Democrat.

“The store filled until those inside could not move about,” the PD added, “while the pressure from without continued.” Surely we can all imagine a store with women packed shoulder to shoulder – but remember this was also 1912, when women’s hats were enormous. There must have been many millinery collisions, and from above it must have looked like a single undulating blanket of ribbons and bows and fake blooming flowers.

Pity, too, the employees trying to serve such a mob. “The women clerks could not wait on the crowd fast enough to satisfy all,” the paper reported, suggesting some customers had ruffled feathers (see again: weird hats) and were snarling at the poor saleswomen. In that era before paper bags, clerks were expected to wrap up the items, but they were too harried to even offer that service. “Many took their articles to nearby stores and secured papers with which to wrap them up. Others carried their purchases home without any wrapping.” What a sight the town must have been that day, with a stream of women, hats askew, trickling away from downtown with their alarm clocks, cake plates and Turkish towels tucked under their arms.

Santa Rosa old timers are probably now waxing nostalgic about the jaw-breakers and comic books they bought at Woolworth’s, just slightly east from Mendocino avenue on Fourth street in the Rosenberg building. But in 1912 the store was elsewhere, directly west of Exchange Bank. And that place is still there – or at least, most of it.

Compare the two photos below. The one taken in 1918 shows five corbels at the top and four fenestrations. The modern building has four corbels and three windows. At some point the building was made slimmer by about fifteen feet. But which side – and why?

The first clue is that the old Woolworth address, 541 Fourth street, no longer exists. The westmost storefront is number 535, which was the late, lamented Caffe Portofino. Offices upstairs are 537 and the beauty shop next to the bank is number 539, which suggests the east side was shaved. Next, the fire maps show the building was built around 1910 and made with reinforced concrete and steel beams. The eastern wall is now brick, which is more evidence that it’s not original. (As an aside, the masonry work looks pretty funky and the inside wall is heavily reinforced with wood trusses.)

So why was the right side of the building chopped off? The answer would certainly be found in a thorough title search, which Gentle Reader is welcome to pursue – far be it for me to deny G. R. a few hours of microfilm fun down at the recorder’s office. Most likely Exchange Bank discovered those few feet of the building were over the property line. Why the owner at the time chose to slice off a section of the building – no mean trick without causing serious damage to the rest of the structure – instead of demolishing the whole thing or paying Exchange for a lot line adjustment is anyone’s guess.

The Woolworth articles transcribed below shows this was once the “Livernash building,” which would mean it was owned by Jessie Livernash, the sister of J. P. and T. T. Overton, two of the wealthiest men in Santa Rosa and landlords for a large chunk of downtown. Jessie died in 1913, and the obituaries reveal she also owned the property directly to the north of the bank; the “Livernash block” mentioned in her obit was apparently that whole end of the block, with a carveout on the corner for Exchange Bank. All of these details would be a yawner if not for the fact she was the ex-wife of Edward J. Livernash, who just may have been the most outrageous character ever associated with Santa Rosa (and that really says something).

Bonus item: Below is also a small notice about work starting on the Doyle Building on the corner of Fourth and D streets. This lovely Beaux Arts office and retail building was at the location of the old Athenaeum theater, destroyed in the 1906 quake. It is amazing that this lot remained vacant for over five years, given all the construction downtown at the time.

Historic photos courtesy the Larry Lapeere Collection

BIG OPENING ON SATURDAY
Woolworth Place of Business Ready for Inspection

The store established in this city by the F. W. Woolworth Company, in the Livernash building on Fourth street, near Mendocino, will be open for inspection by the public on Friday afternoon from 2:30 until 5:30 o’clock. On Saturday morning the establishment will be opened for business at 9 o’clock and thereafter at 8 o’clock each morning. A glance at the show windows gives the people an idea of what to expect to find on the inside of the mammoth store, but the interior presents even greater surprises.

The establishment of the store in this city demonstrates the remarkable growth of the F. W. Woolworth Company from a small store with a capital of $300, into one of the largest corporations known, having a capitalization of $65,000,000. The company operates 650 stores in the United States and CAnada and each is known officially through a numeral. Santa Rosa is Store No. 614.

It will be the aim of the company to carry in its local store the merchandise which the people of Santa Rosa want…

…With such painstaking efforts to please it is hoped the people of Santa Rosa will appreciate the efforts to serve them well. The mammoth store occupies the lower and upper floors of the Livernash building, giving one of the largest floor spaces devoted to a single business in the City of Santa Rosa. From the appearance of the store it looks as if everything under the sun is carried and nothing in the stock will be over 15 cents in price.

W. E. Ward is the local manager of the business, and he is an experienced man in that capacity, and one who always strives to please. He has until recently been assistant manager of the store at San Diego, and is delighted to have been permitted to make his home in Santa Rosa.

 – Santa Rosa Republican, August 21, 1912
A GREAT RUSH AT THE WOOLWORTH STORE

The opening of the new 5, 10 and 15 cent store under the management of the F. W. Woolworth Co., Saturday morning proved quite exciting. The crowd was immense.

Women commenced congregating as early as 7:30 and 9 o’clock when the store opened the sidewalk was blocked and the crowd extended far out into the street. When the doors were finally unlocked and the jam was so great that one woman narrowly escaped having her arm broken when she fell before the on rush.

The store filled until those inside could not move about, while the pressure from without continued. Many wanted special articles which they could not reach. The women clerks could not wait on the crowd fast enough to satisfy all.

Many took their articles to nearby stores and secured papers with which to wrap them up. Others carried their purchases home without any wrapping. All day long the crowds filled the store and at night the counters and shelves showed the result of the day’s business. The firm has a large reserve stock, and by Monday the store will be replenished, ready for all who want to take advantage of the bargains to be found on the counters. And there are some real bargains in the way of prices to be had in the various lines offered.

– Press Democrat, August 25, 1912
NEW BUILDING FOR CORNER

M. Doyle, who owns the property formerly occupied by the Athenaeum on the corner of Fourth and D streets, is preparing to erect a two story building. It will be a concrete reinforced structure, and the upper floor will be occupied by a hall and offices, while the lower floor will be devoted to stores.

Company E has talked some of making an armory there, but as yet the matter has not been decided.

The contract has been let out for the iron and work will begin immediately on the building. This will be a welcome addition to the city and will complete the corner that has been vacant ever since the fire.

The building will be first class in every respect and Mr. Doyle will give the work his personal attention. Only the best of materials will be used in the construction.

 – Santa Rosa Republican, April 7, 1911

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